Planning for Retirement

The years either side of retirement are vitally important. You can find yourself facing a wide range of financial decisions: taking and investing your pension, using your property, reviewing your savings and investments, making and updating wills, inheritance tax, and long term care planning. Benjamin Gibbs, from Glazers Financial Services, looks at some of these issues.

If you are approaching retirement, you may be considering how to make the best of your pension, how to save and invest, and how to take your pension when you do retire. You may also want to make sure that the investments you have made over the years are working for you. Once you do retire, you will be getting used to having your pension and investments as the bulk of your income, and managing your savings and investments on this basis. And of course, you want to do all of this in the most tax-efficient way.

As property prices continue to increase, many people decide to sell their home and move to a smaller house or flat, so that they have money to invest or pass on to loved ones to help them get on the property ladder. Some consider equity release schemes instead, to boost their income or give them a lump sum they can spend, invest or give away, whilst continuing to live in their own homes.

An up-to-date will and some simple inheritance tax planning can make a big difference when it comes to dealing with your estate and minimising the tax payable. Changes in your own position, as well as changes to legislation, mean that you should review your will regularly to make sure that it reflects your wishes.

Longer term nursing and care costs can eat into savings, but few people plan ahead for these costs. Planning for how you want to live, and be looked after if necessary, is vitally important, but something that many overlook. Elderly relatives who live on their own may start to lose their independence and the recently retired can find that a substantial part of their time and energy is spent in caring for their relatives.

If these are the main issues that many face, how best to go about addressing them?

The starting point is a stock-take: you need to know what you own, and how much you have coming in and going out each month. At this point, you are likely to find it useful to speak to your financial adviser, solicitor or accountant to get a clearer idea of exactly what you might be able to do. Once you know where you are, you can then start to look at the options that are available to you.

When it comes to making a detailed plan, we have found that a focused approach, that considers all the issues in a structured manner and combines the expertise of different professionals, works best.

After looking at your options, you will be in a position to start making decisions, using the help of your advisers as you require it. You also may wish to keep family and others, who might be affected by your decisions involved and informed. Of course, this is only the start of an on-going process; you need to review your plans in the light of legislative changes and as your circumstances change.

At Glazers we are always trying to make the lives of our clients easier, by making financial planning easier to understand and helping them make good financial decisions. Glazers Financial Services have evaluated a number of solicitors to create a panel, which we draw on to provide all the advice you need before and after your retirement. We have pension, tax, investment, finance and legal specialists, to show you the options available and develop them into a workable plan for you.

Benjamin Gibbs is an independent financial planner at Glazers Financial Services. If you would like further information on any of the issues outlined above or to discuss any aspect of financial planning you can him email him at ben@gfsl.com or call him on 020 8458 7427.

Glazers Financial Services Limited is an appointed representative of Sesame Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. The Financial Services Authority do not regulate all forms of tax planning.

Top